The gyms in your city, and the crews that hold them
Turf puts the gyms around you on a map and lets crews hold them. Your logged sessions are your contribution, and each week scores a different kind of training. There is nothing extra to log.
Example gym board, this week
Four factions on equal terms
You pick a faction when you join: Physique, Strength, Performance or Longevity. It says how you train and gives no stat advantage.
Each week of a season scores one terrain (volume, intensity, engine or foundation), and every faction's home terrain comes up equally often. A powerlifter has a big intensity week and an ordinary engine week; a runner has the reverse. The schedule is fixed and published before the season starts, so no discipline has the edge over a season.
You can switch factions only during settlement week at the end of a season, not mid-week when you can see who is winning.
Crews hold gyms
A crew is a group of people who train at the same place, and a gym goes to the crew putting the most into it, not to whoever lifts the most.
Contribution blends what you did against your own recent training with what you did in absolute terms, so a beginner having a great month is not drowned out by an advanced lifter coasting. Crew size counts by its square root, so a crew of twenty beats a crew of five without being four times as strong.
Holds decay. A crew that stops training loses its gym gradually, whether or not anyone challenges it.
Sieges: a declared, time-boxed fight over one gym
A crew declares a siege on a gym another crew holds. It runs for a fixed window, both sides build contribution at that gym, and the higher score takes it. A gym can have only one active siege at a time.
Declaring a siege costs fuel, which you earn by training, so a crew that only picks fights runs out.
Both crews get a notification when a siege starts, when it closes and how it ended. These notifications are on by default.
Check-ins, and what MuscleBuddy does not keep
Checking in at a gym makes a session count for more at that gym. A session logged anywhere still counts for the gym you set, just for less than one you checked in at.
Your location is matched to a gym and then discarded; MuscleBuddy does not store your coordinates. What it keeps is the gym, the day and the score.
A board is hidden until it has enough participants, so a city with four lifters can't identify anyone.
Free to play
The competition is free: the map, factions, crews, holds, sieges, seasons and the faction forums. Keeping it free keeps people on the map.
Pro adds contribution history terrain by terrain, and opponent scouting: what each session was worth, and how your crew's weighting works.
Frequently asked
- Do I need to pay for Turf?
No. Free: the map, factions, crews, holds, sieges, seasons and the faction forums. Pro adds contribution history terrain by terrain, and opponent scouting.
- Does MuscleBuddy track my location?
Only when you check in, and only to work out which gym you are at. The coordinates are matched to a gym and discarded.
- What if my gym is not on the map?
Set your city and the map fills in with its gyms. If yours is still missing, add it by placing a pin. It is private to you until an admin confirms it, and then it can be claimed like any other. Anyone can report a gym a member added if it is wrong.
- I train at home. Am I locked out?
No. Each city has one claimable home tile for home lifters to hold and contribute to.
- Does my faction decide what I am allowed to train?
No. Your faction changes nothing about your program, your progression or what MuscleBuddy suggests. It decides which weeks suit your training and who you stand with on the board.
Find out who holds your gym
Set your city, pick a faction and see the map. Your next logged session adds to your crew’s score.